Beyond El Dorado: Power and Gold in Ancient Colombia
For centuries, Europeans repeated the legend of a Golden City at the heart of South America. El Dorado refers to a ritual carried out at Lake Guatavita, near Bogotá, capital of Colombia. The leader of the local Muisca tribe covered himself in gold dust and entered the lake to reemerge as the new cacique of the indigenous peoples inhabiting the Eastern Cordillera highlands. This exhibition, sponsored by Julius Baer, presents some of the most fascinating objects found in the early-Twentieth Century excavation of the lake. Among them are sophisticated pre-Columbian items, both utilitarian and ritual, such as ceramic pieces, stone necklaces, and gold jewelry.
The exhibition features more than 300 objects from the collection of Museo del Oro in Bogotá, one of the world's richest archives of pre-Columbian gold, as well as items from the British Museum. With these exceptional items, the show explores the complex social networks established between cultures like the Muisca, Quimbaya, Calima, Tairoma, Tolima, and Zenú.
According to Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, "For a long time ancient Colombia has fascinated the world, even though our knowledge of its unique and varied cultures is limited. Continuing with a series of exhibitions at the British Museum that seek to bring to light complex and little known ancient societies, this show offers visitors a view of pre-Columbian South America and an opportunity to explore the legend of El Dorado through these amazing objects".
Gold was mainly of great symbolic value as one of the means used by the elites to sustain their semi-divine status both in life and after death. The items featured in this exhibition reveal the characteristics of these peoples' spiritual experience, which includes mythological representations of animals, objects, music, dance, sunlight, and rituals with hallucinogenic substances that fostered physical and spiritual transformations in communication with the supernatural world. This entire iconography is present in breastplates, necklaces, and all manner of body adornments.
The exhibition also analyzes the techniques used in the foundry and shaping of metals like gold and copper, as well as the handling of pigments in textiles and the large-scale manufacturing of gold masks for funerary rites.
American Airlines and American Airlines Cargo joined sponsor Julius Baer in supporting the exhibition, which will be presented in Room 35 through March 23rd, 2014. It is accompanied by a book edited by Elisenda Vila Llonch.
